DOESEY-s WANTON] THE BILOXI AND OPO LANGUAGES 83 



NOTES 



1. da^K, i. e., da"^ JwP-^ before hide; so eya^x (2) for eya^Jd^ before 

 Tddi. 



3. a'^xti ha'^, etc. Can Aa", "here," be used instead of ka^\ '*if, 

 when" (perhaps used in the sense of although)? According to the 

 context the meaning appears to be, " Though they were women they 

 overtook him." The Deer people who overtook the man were women. 

 These Deer women seem to have been harmless compared with the 

 Deer women of Dakota folklore. 



5. ya^y irikaxtu, -tu, pi. ending; x^ a sign of contraction before 

 -tu, therefore the verb stem must have been either ymJcaha"^ or yin- 

 IcaM, rather than yifika'do'^ni' or yin'ka'to'^ni' {yinJcatl + o'^ni), the usual 

 [modern] form; hi has a future reference; hida'^, judging from the 

 context, is a masculine interrogative sign; i'^da^ a sign of consent. 



7. A^yaxi-ya^ naxe kaHca, etc. The chief must hear your request 

 before we can give j^ou our answer; ade o'^nidi^ for that reason [to 

 notify the chief] they departed; d^nidi usually refers to some ante- 

 cedent generally expressed. 



8. xapid, instead of xapi: (a) the final d may be a contraction of 

 -di, the sign of the nominative or subject (see awod, 12); or (b) it 

 may be compared with tupet (10) used instead of tuj)e (in 7); adukse' = 

 atukse' ; wahe (compare, uwe and wa)^ "they go down into [a hole in 

 the ground or under water]." 



9. ahd^ye {ahi^ o™, -ye). 



12. awod; final d is perhaps a contraction of -di^ the sign of the 

 subject or nominative. (See xapid, 8.) 



14. Aksup-ta {aksupi), "to be on the alert, look sharp." Compare 

 the ^egiha sdbe'; imperative, saba'-ga! 



20. Ta xid% a magic deer. 



22. Though the Indians shot the magic or mystery Deer they could 

 not kill its spirit. The man to whom it had been given took up its 

 skin and carried it back to Deer Land. 



24. The deer head now given differed from the deerskin and the 

 mystery Deer. 



27. yanka, a sign in form of the object, but in use of the subject. 



TRANSLATION 



There was once a worthless man who was walking along in search of 

 game. He found a deerskin that had but recently been taken from the 

 animal. He took up the skin and started toward home. "When he 

 had nearly arrived there, he thought, " I will say that 1 shot at it and 

 killed it." While he was thinking thus, some Deer women overtook 

 him. They did not wish to let him retain the skin, which they said 

 was theirs, so they said to him, "Give it back to us." 



